A month or so ago
I wrote about a 12 foot tall sunflower
That had planted itself
At the front of the garden.
A sort of “magic bean” situation.
Over this month I have cut dozens
Of blooms from this tower of sunshine.
It simply makes me smile
Everytime I look it’s way.
But the blooms have faded
And it’s setting seeds.
So I decided that today was the day
To chop it down.
After church I went out my back door
Only to be stopped in my tracks
By something glistening in the sunlight
It was large – really large.
A very industrious spider
Had spun a web on the side
Of the sunflower.
But the really amazing thing
Was that it connected the other side
Of the web
To the cedar tree TWENTY FIVE FEET away.
I’m not making this up.
My neigbor Torry and John
Are witnesses.
We have no idea
How this was accomplished
Simply a miracle
In my own backyard.
It reminds me of something Elliott said last week
When we had all climbed the side of a mountin
To help H & H look for fossils.
Some in our group scoured a big area
While H & H just kept digging
And looking in a small space around them.
Elliott noted that looking closesly
Right in front of our eyes.
Revealed more and more.
Looking closely.
Slowing down to observe.
Delighting in the mystery of nature.
Time well spent.
Gail
” When one tugs at a single thing in nature they find it attached to the rest of the world.”
John Muir
In My Garden 